Preemptive Snipe at Voices of Reason

Nine months before Antony Loewenstein's book on the conflict in Israel and Palestine, Voices of Reason, has even been published, it's under attack. Loewenstein, who is a progressive member of the Jewish community and a Sydney-based freelance journalist, unsuccessfully made several attempts to ask the right-wing Australian Labor Party parliamentarian and Jewish community member, Michael Danby, some questions on the issue. Subsequently Danby wrote a letter to the editor of Australian Jewish News, arguing that Loewenstein's publisher, Melbourne University Press (MUP), "should drop this whole disgusting project. If they proceed, I urge the Australian Jewish community, and particularly the Australian Jewish News, to treat it with dignified silence." In response, MUP CEO Louise Adler wrote that "condemning a book prior to publication is appalling ... Danby’s proposal is inimical to the central Jewish values of tolerance and open debate."